Tuesday, August 12, 2014

The Digital Dozen Does Summer - Day 2: Bonfire Nail Art

Yay! Day 2 of Digital Dozen Summer week is here and I'm...well, I'm tired! I thought today's mani wasn't going to happen! I had almost given up for the day, when at 12:01am this Tuesday morning, inspiration struck and this bonfire mani was born. Maybe like a "let there be light" sort of situation? Just kidding ;)

I absolutely love sitting around a campfire. There is something so soothing and peaceful about it. My family camps all the time so each night we make a fire and enjoy a nice drink, some S'mores, and good company. When we're not camping, we'll often make bonfires in our yard at night and eat, drink and be happy once again. Ah, such good memories around a fire :)So, I think we are learning a few things about me in this DD summer week. The first is that I like to mattify ALL my manis...maybe? Maybe we already knew this. The second? That so far it would appear that all of my summer memories happen at night? I'm okay with it ;) I'm a night owl and have always loved night time so it seems fitting that my summer manis are associated with staying up late and enjoying the outdoors :)
It's very late and I'm sleepy (borderline zombie), but I think these look pretty close to a bonfire/campfire if I do say so myself! When I started these I really wasn't sure how to create the glow that you see around a campfire and it was sort of an accident that there appears to be a glow of sorts around this one.
I started out with a gradient of black to dark blue to light blue to tan and I think that tan is what ended up peaking through and giving that glowing affect later on. It was a total accident that that worked though! For the rest of the look, I sponged some dark blue/black in an arc around the fire to make it appear that only a small area was being lit by the fire. I also added in a few stars for good measure because stargazing was also a part of our campfire activities. This whole look was done with acrylic paints and topped with seche vite then OPI's Matte Top Coat.
Overall, I think I like this! I'm pleasantly surprised by how it turned out and considering that just under an hour ago I thought I'd have to give up on day 2 for the time being, I'm quite proud of these. I'd love to hear what you think of these! Do you they resemble a campfire to you? Do you have campfire memories?
Be sure to check out the other ladies' looks below!